Student Experience Grant enables further measures to encourage and protect wildlife at Easter Bush site. Image Students hope to install a wildlife camera on site. Students have won support from the University to further the creation of hedgehog-friendly spaces at the Easter Bush Campus. A £2,000 Student Experience Grant, funded by donations to the University, will be used to implement changes that benefit hedgehogs and wildlife. The project, to take place over 12 months, will extend previous measures to develop the site as a place where hedgehogs can safely feed, shelter and breed, and improve the environment for students, staff, and visitors. Improving infrastructure Students Sarah Batiste, Niamh Duthie and Niamh Kinch will seek to use their award to survey the site, to establish where improvements might be best made and to highlight deficiencies. These are likely to include the addition of safe water sources, creating ramps in ponds and cattle grids, providing hedgehog highways, increasing wildflower coverage, and by making wooden hedgehog homes, compost heaps, and log piles. The team also hope to include signs to alert drivers of hedgehog populations, and to install a wildlife camera to measure the impact of their efforts over time. They also hope that more students will participate in the scheme, owing to the possible benefits of spending time outdoors and in cultivating leadership, collaboration, and connections to communities and the environment. The development follows the University of Edinburgh’s silver accreditation as a Hedgehog-Friendly Campus in February, and a 2020 summer survey that found hedgehog footprints in temporary tunnels around Easter Bush campus, as well as hedgehog sightings on camera. We are extremely lucky to work and study in a Campus that is surrounded by green and forested landscapes and home to significant biodiversity. We would like to create spaces that foster and promote this by supporting dwindling hedgehog populations. Sarah BatisteStudent of Veterinary Medicine Image credit: Tadeusz Lakota on Unsplash About the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies The Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies is a one-of-a-kind centre of excellence in clinical activity, teaching and research. Our purpose-built campus, set against the backdrop of the beautiful Pentland Hills Regional Park, is home to more than eight hundred staff and almost fourteen hundred students, all of whom contribute to our exceptional community ethos. The School comprises: The Roslin Institute The Global Academy of Agriculture and Food Security The Roslin Innovation Centre The Hospital for Small Animals Equine Veterinary Services Farm Animal Services Easter Bush Pathology The Jeanne Marchig International Centre for Animal Welfare Education We represent the largest concentration of animal science related expertise in Europe, impacting local, regional, national and international communities in terms of economic growth, the provision of clinical services and the advancement of scientific knowledge. Related links Student Experience Grants Hedgehog-Friendly Campus Publication date 08 Apr, 2021
